With his passing, you had to know this was coming. In fact, I got a few emails this weekend suggesting that Musial be the choice for this week’s Monster Card. Fortunately, ‘Stan the Man’ made the job easy.
I was picking through my APBA set collection and found a few Musial cards but I eventually asked Mike Bunch, commissioner of the Illowa APBA League and rabid Cardinals fan to pick one out. Mike’s also big Musial fan and he did him proud. He picked out two cards based on two of his best seasons.
1946 Great Teams of the Past set
In 1946, Musial not only won his second MVP with the Cardinals but helped them to a World Championship. Musial dominated NL pitching leading in every major offensive category except homeruns and rbis. He hit .365 with 124 runs scored, 228 hits, 50 doubles and even rapped 20 triples. As a result, he led the NL in slugging while only hitting 16 homeruns.
With five 0s and three more 7s, this card is a threat in any era. Add to that the three 31s, just one 13 and no 24s and this card is a great number three hitter.
1948 All-Time “B” Set
If you like the previous card, Musial’s 1948 card is definitely one to savor. It’s from his 1948 MVP year. That was the year he found his power, hitting 39 homeruns. Again, he led the league in most categories including hitting (.376), rbis (131), hits (230), runs (135), doubles (46), triples (18), slugging (.702) and OBP (.450).
It’s hard for APBA not to be kind to a player with those stats. Musial received nasty power numbers (1-1-3-6-6) plus a rare 51-7. It was especially rare in combination with his four 14s. With this card, Musial has 17 chances to get on base against a D pitcher with the bases empty (not counting the error number). Probably more daunting, he has 13 on base chances against an A pitcher.
Instead of just displaying the stats for each year, I’m just going to show Stan Musial’s entire career hitting stats. It’s amazing how consistent he was with the bat.
| Year | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | 12 | 47 | 8 | 20 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .426 | .449 | .574 | ||||||||||
| 1942 | 140 | 467 | 87 | 147 | 32 | 10 | 10 | 72 | 6 | 62 | 25 | .315 | .397 | .490 | ||||||||||
| 1943 | 157 | 617 | 108 | 220 | 48 | 20 | 13 | 81 | 9 | 72 | 18 | .357 | .425 | .562 | ||||||||||
| 1944 | 146 | 568 | 112 | 197 | 51 | 14 | 12 | 94 | 7 | 90 | 28 | .347 | .440 | .549 | ||||||||||
| 1945 | Did not play in major leagues (Military Service) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1946 | 156 | 624 | 124 | 228 | 50 | 20 | 16 | 103 | 7 | 73 | 31 | .365 | .434 | .587 | ||||||||||
| 1947 | 149 | 587 | 113 | 183 | 30 | 13 | 19 | 95 | 4 | 80 | 24 | .312 | .398 | .504 | ||||||||||
| 1948 | 155 | 611 | 135 | 230 | 46 | 18 | 39 | 131 | 7 | 79 | 34 | .376 | .450 | .702 | ||||||||||
| 1949 | 157 | 612 | 128 | 207 | 41 | 13 | 36 | 123 | 3 | 107 | 38 | .338 | .438 | .624 | ||||||||||
| 1950 | 146 | 555 | 105 | 192 | 41 | 7 | 28 | 109 | 5 | 87 | 36 | .346 | .437 | .596 | ||||||||||
| 1951 | 152 | 578 | 124 | 205 | 30 | 12 | 32 | 108 | 4 | 98 | 40 | .355 | .449 | .614 | ||||||||||
| 1952 | 154 | 578 | 105 | 194 | 42 | 6 | 21 | 91 | 7 | 96 | 29 | .336 | .432 | .538 | ||||||||||
| 1953 | 157 | 593 | 127 | 200 | 53 | 9 | 30 | 113 | 3 | 105 | 32 | .337 | .437 | .609 | ||||||||||
| 1954 | 153 | 591 | 120 | 195 | 41 | 9 | 35 | 126 | 1 | 103 | 39 | .330 | .428 | .607 | ||||||||||
| 1955 | 154 | 562 | 97 | 179 | 30 | 5 | 33 | 108 | 5 | 80 | 39 | .319 | .408 | .566 | ||||||||||
| 1956 | 156 | 594 | 87 | 184 | 33 | 6 | 27 | 109 | 2 | 75 | 39 | .310 | .386 | .522 | ||||||||||
| 1957 | 134 | 502 | 82 | 176 | 38 | 3 | 29 | 102 | 1 | 66 | 34 | .351 | .422 | .612 | ||||||||||
| 1958 | 135 | 472 | 64 | 159 | 35 | 2 | 17 | 62 | 0 | 72 | 26 | .337 | .423 | .528 | ||||||||||
| 1959 | 115 | 341 | 37 | 87 | 13 | 2 | 14 | 44 | 0 | 60 | 25 | .255 | .364 | .428 | ||||||||||
| 1960 | 116 | 331 | 49 | 91 | 17 | 1 | 17 | 63 | 1 | 41 | 34 | .275 | .354 | .486 | ||||||||||
| 1961 | 123 | 372 | 46 | 107 | 22 | 4 | 15 | 70 | 0 | 52 | 35 | .288 | .371 | .489 | ||||||||||
| 1962 | 135 | 433 | 57 | 143 | 18 | 1 | 19 | 82 | 3 | 64 | 46 | .330 | .416 | .508 | ||||||||||
| 1963 | 124 | 337 | 34 | 86 | 10 | 2 | 12 | 58 | 2 | 35 | 43 | .255 | .325 | .404 | ||||||||||
| 22 Yrs | 3026 | 10972 | 1949 | 3630 | 725 | 177 | 475 | 1951 | 78 | 1599 | 696 | .331 | .417 | .559 | ||||||||||
In case you’re wondering, one Musial card I found from my sets was from the 1962 reprint set (left). By no means was 1962 Musial’s best year seeing it was towards the end of his career but most APBA players would love to have that card. He was 1-5-6 with a 55-7 and a 26-14.
Thanks to Mike Bunch with his help in choosing these cards. I’m glad I was able to enlist the help of a Musial fan for this.
Thanks! who else could you have put up this week. His ’46 card was my first look at Musial and always partial to it:)
The one from’48 is the card tht first introduced me to Stan the Man. What a monster card! As my dad would say, ” you could build a team” around this guy & he was right! The cardinals did for over 20 years. I just finished HUD biography at the end of last year, Stan Musial: An American Life, it is a fantastic book! Musial is everything we baseball enthusiasts know tht is good abt the game! Thanks Stan for showing us how it’s done on & off the field.
*his (not HUD)
:)
with the 1946 card the placement of the 41 at 46 is interesting as it is great on hit and run for another single number, but is prime for a lot of triple play chances too.
Still awesome cards both.